Micro-amps - which has the quietest fan?

[Bass Culture]

I have a Warwick Gnome which I bought on a whim and which I am really enjoying - it's perfect as a small practice set-up (along with my BC House Jam micro cab).  However, as I use it in our lounge and often play at quite low volumes, I can find the fan quite intrusive on occasion.  I wouldn't notice it if accompanying another instrument but alongside low volume recordings, it's reasonably audible.  Just wondering which out of the Gnome, TE Elf and TC BAM 200 has the quietest fan.  Anyone compared them at all?

Edited July 11, 2023 by Bass Culture

[BassAdder60]

I have the ELF and it’s quite noisy for home use ( fan I mean ) 

 

Best thing I did recently was to buy the VOX Amplug 2 Bass headphone amp. For approx £35 it’s even got a drum machine ( basic ) built in !! 
 

Plugs into your bass and it’s battery powered and using headphones you can practice at home without annoying anyone!!! 

Edited July 11, 2023 by BassAdder60

[fretmeister]

 

5W. No fan at all.

 

It's the perfect lounge amp, and it's plenty loud enough in the lounge too - in fact stick it into something high end like a Barefaced Super Twin and it is hilariously loud!

[Elfrasho]

2 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

5W. No fan at all.

 

It's the perfect lounge amp, and it's plenty loud enough in the lounge too - in fact stick it into something high end like a Barefaced Super Twin and it is hilariously loud!

 I owned a guitar version of one of these, can't remember exactly what it was modelled around, but it was spectacular! Stuck it through a cheapo 4x12 and it went LOUD! I'll need to try one of the bass ones at some point!

[fretmeister]

I only bought mine for a laugh really, and I was blown away by it.

 

It does the SVT thing so well. Everybody should have one.

[BassmanPaul]

Put the amp with the noisy fan into another room and close the door. A couple of long cables for speaker and instrument and you are away to the races!

 

[msb]

I bought a Hotone Thunderbass for a giggle when one popped up on kijiji , and I use it with headphones a lot. I can also plug in a tablet and play along with things , perfect as a rehearsal tool.

[msb]

I have a GK MB200 , somehow the fan got gunked up and stopped working. Fried the ICE power chip.

I liked the amp enough to get it repaired. Now I find the sound of a fan running oddly reassuring.

[aniki]

I have a TC BAM200 stuck to my pedalboard that I use for practicing at home.

The fan is whisper quiet; similar to a macbook. In my soundproofed room I only really hear it at all when everything else is turned off. Can't imagine it being remotely intrusive while actually playing.

For reference, before I bought the BAM, I read reviews where people had said they 'hadn't pushed it hard enough for the fan to run'. However, I learned after buying mine that the fan actually runs all the time so I guess the reviewers hadn't heard it at all!

I can't compare to the others I'm afraid. I've used an Elf but only in a noisy environment.

[Bass Culture]

Thanks for the replies so far.  A friend has a BAM also, and I can't remember hearing the fan on his either when he brought it round for us to A/B a few months ago.

 

[Phil Starr]

I wonder if there is some manufacturing spread? I would describe my Gnome as whisper quiet and certainly quieter than any other amp I've owned, you should hear my Peavey taking off. At last years SW Bass Bash we looked at all three of the micro amps, we were looking at frequency responses and tone controls so not specifically the fans but I didn't notice any differences at the time.

 

[MOSCOWBASS]

I have a Mesa D350... no fan, so totally silent in the house.

[msb]

The loudest fan I’ve ever heard is on the SWR HeadLite.

… that thing seriously rocks out!

[Bass Culture]

16 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

I wonder if there is some manufacturing spread? I would describe my Gnome as whisper quiet and certainly quieter than any other amp I've owned, you should hear my Peavey taking off. At last years SW Bass Bash we looked at all three of the micro amps, we were looking at frequency responses and tone controls so not specifically the fans but I didn't notice any differences at the time.

 

That's interesting. My Gnome certainly isn't whisper quiet.  I wonder if there's any simple checks I could do to establish if the fan is working correctly?  It's not that quiet but nor does it sound like it's not functioning correctly - no noises that sound like interference or anything.

[Phil Starr]

3 hours ago, Bass Culture said:

That's interesting. My Gnome certainly isn't whisper quiet.  I wonder if there's any simple checks I could do to establish if the fan is working correctly?  It's not that quiet but nor does it sound like it's not functioning correctly - no noises that sound like interference or anything.

to be fair it might be subjective, I don't use it at home and in any situation where there is the usual audience hubbub the fan just can't be heard. We all perceive things differently. I would also imagine that no two fans sound exactly the same . To produce amps at these prices there are bound to be small discrepancies. I suppose the crucial bit is that I dont  really think that the other models will be much different. In these days of internet shopping it could be difficult to compare.

[Raslee]

I’ve got the Bam 200. Much quieter than the Elf I owned, but if I’m honest I preferred the sound of the Elf (any swappers ? 😂). One thing about the Bam is that it gets hot, but this is normal apparently - very clean sounding. 

[BassmanPaul]

In my mind I find it strange that people obsess on the noise a fan makes. The solution is really simple: if you can hear the fan you're not playing loud enough!!

 

[ambient]

Don’t get the TE Elf. I had one briefly. You could hear the fan from downstairs and two rooms away.

[Owen]

Acoustic Image = no fan. One for sale on here for the right price. 

[fretmeister]

4 hours ago, ambient said:

Don’t get the TE Elf. I had one briefly. You could hear the fan from downstairs and two rooms away.

 

The loudest fan I ever had was in the Mesa Prodigy 4:88.

 

The fact that an all valve amp was built in a way to need a fan was really stupid. Even then the fan itself was a really cheap piece of crap in a £2500 amplifier.

 

It looked no different to any other PC case fan. An extra £20 and it could have had a BeQuiet or a Noctua fan with hardly any noise at all.

 

Nobbers.

[Downunderwonder]

On 15/07/2023 at 07:52, BassmanPaul said:

In my mind I find it strange that people obsess on the noise a fan makes. The solution is really simple: if you can hear the fan you're not playing loud enough!!

 

In the case of home practice you are actually too loud already. Stay quiet enough that the fan doesn't come on!

[mahei]

On 12/07/2023 at 22:00, Phil Starr said:

I wonder if there is some manufacturing spread? I would describe my Gnome as whisper quiet and certainly quieter than any other amp I've owned, you should hear my Peavey taking off. At last years SW Bass Bash we looked at all three of the micro amps, we were looking at frequency responses and tone controls so not specifically the fans but I didn't notice any differences at the time.

 

 

On 13/07/2023 at 14:28, Bass Culture said:

That's interesting. My Gnome certainly isn't whisper quiet.  I wonder if there's any simple checks I could do to establish if the fan is working correctly?  It's not that quiet but nor does it sound like it's not functioning correctly - no noises that sound like interference or anything.

 

Based on the reports there seems to be some manufacturing spread indeed. I had one of the loud ones which was very intrusive for practice in an apartment - full tilt right when powered up. Maybe a controller issue? For reference, the TecAmp Puma is much quieter in the same setting.

[Owen]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, if we know the spec of a given fan, is it possible to replace it with a better aftermarket one? I have had amps I liked but could not use due to fan issues. 

[Downunderwonder]

A year or so ago we had a thread about someone wanting to combify their cab by adding a small class D amp inside with only the front ventless panel on the outside.

 

I was surprised to learn that the lack of any ventilation would not bother the amp as surface conduction of the cabinet would cool the airspace plenty to avoid thermal runaway, barely warming the inside as it turned out.

 

So next room isolation would not be necessary, just put it in a cardboard box to muffle the fan noise.

[Ian Davies]

This is a really interesting thread, I was looking to get a Warwick Gnome and also have concerns with fan noise at quiet home practice level and for recording. Sounds like there are variations in production which makes me feel just buy one and if the fan is too noisy send it back. I believe the EICH T300 is fan-less? A different price point and small but not micro. Maybe worth getting something with no fan to be sure if fan noise is a no go.